London Denies Exodus Refugees Going to Le Havre; Prison Ships Already Nearing Hamburg

The Foreign Office today denied a report in a New York newspaper that the transports carrying the Exodus refugees would be diverted to Le Havre. A spokesman said that the ships have passed through the Straits of Dover(##) past the French port – and were proceeding to Hamburg as scheduled.

A Reuter correspondent on board one of the prison ships wirelessed that it was passing through the English Channel and was due to change escorts tonight, with (##)ships of the home fleet taking over from the Mediterranean flotilla for the balance of the voyage to Germany.

A Foreign Office spokesman revealed this evening that two ships “believed to be carrying visaless Jewish immigrants to Palestine” are being closely watched on the (##) seas. The ships left Bayonne, France, in August, and are flying the Panamanian (##)s, the official said.

“It is known that a party of Jews was assembled in Rumania with Uruguayan passports despite the fact that there is no Uruguayan diplomatic representative in (##)ania,” the official continued, disclosing that one of the ships is now at Varna, Hungaria, just south of the Rumanian frontier, after passing through the Dardanelles.

The British press reports from Italy that a limpet adhesive mine blew a large (##) in the forepart of a ship believed to be destined to carry Jewish immigrants to Palestine. The 4,500-ton vessel, Pan Crescent, was moored in the Biudecca Canal, (##)ice. A letter signed by an underground Arab organization, received by Reuter’s office in Rome, claimed that the ship had been mined by this organization.